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Placebo Buttons?

A recent article suggested that many of the buttons/toggles that we experience in our daily lives...

The Development Of Social Monogamy In Mammals

Two papers published this week have proposed explanations regarding the evolution of social monogamy...

Easy Answers To World Problems

After reading another article by Alex Berezow ["The Arrogance of a Well-Fed Society"] insisting...

The Precautionary Principle Review

There is an interesting series of articles published by the Guardian discussing various aspects...

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Gerhard AdamRSS Feed of this column.

I'm not big on writing things about myself so a friend on this site (Brian Taylor) opted to put a few sentences together: Hopefully I'll be able to live up to his claims. "I thought perhaps you... Read More »

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"Divine Punishment"

Mar 20 2011 | comment(s)

I'm not sure which is worse;  the arrogance of these people actually thinking that they speaking for God or their belief in a God that can only bully people into submission.

“Because the Japanese people shun God in terms of their faith and follow idol worship, atheism, and materialism, it makes me wonder if this was not God’s warning to them.”
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/467934.html

"I think (the disaster) is tembatsu (divine punishment), although I feel sorry for disaster victims," he said.

"Elementary, My Dear Watson"

Feb 16 2011 | comment(s)

OK, by now everyone's familiar with "Watson", the IBM Jeopardy machine with all the hype and drama associated with Artificial Intelligence and what it means for the future of humanity.  Is it HAL or Skynet?  Not by any definition.

So what's the point?  At present, as a proof of concept, "Watson" has demonstrated that it is possible to use algorithms to produce some understanding of natural human speech.  I don't place much stock in "Watson" winning at Jeopardy since that seems as much a function of how quickly the buzzer can be pushed as it is in having an answer.
Ancient Astronauts?

Ancient Astronauts?

Feb 03 2011 | comment(s)

Despite the various claims surrounding the idea of alien visitation in the past, one of the primary arguments has been the creation of immense structures in the past that have been argued as being impossible to create without sophisticated modern technologies.  More to the point, the argument even suggests that it would take quite advanced technologies (even beyond our abilities today), to produce such construction projects.

Invariably the size of the blocks is mentioned (on the order of several tons to several hundred tons), as well as the issue of moving them, positioning them, and of course the precision involved in their placement.
Science and the Senses

Science and the Senses

Jan 05 2011 | comment(s)

A question occurred to me the other day, which was to consider how science might have developed differently had humans possessed different senses.  As an example, humans are significantly visual, but it is interesting to consider how things might be if we lacked vision.
Another Worthless Study

Another Worthless Study

Dec 16 2010 | comment(s)

Today we find a study published which indicates that children that consume caffeine may sleep less.  Besides the fact that this is an obvious and expected finding, it is interesting to note that this is the result of parents being surveyed during routine visits to the doctor.

So, besides the fact that the sleep requirements may vary significantly over the age group studied (5-12 year olds), we are now accepting, as scientific, data on the correlation between caffeine consumption and hours of sleep based on the anecdotal evidence of parents during a doctor's visit.  
Life Isn't Aways Wonderful - Humanity's Third Biggest Problem

Life Isn't Aways Wonderful - Humanity's Third Biggest Problem

Dec 13 2010 | comment(s)

The three problems of humanity were outlined in a talk by Nick Bostrom (of Oxford University, UK) at TED in April 2009.

In this piece I will continue to examine the "big" problems identified in the TEDTalk.  It is this third point that begins to illustrate what the underlying objective of all the other pieces truly is.  

Problem #3:  Life Isn't Usually as Wonderful as it Could Be is a BIG problem